Outtakes from Kate Heyhoe's new book Great Bar Food at Home
"Spiritual" Cooking
From Friars to Fruitcakes
You gotta admire those Medieval monks—they discovered the mechanical clock, general anesthesia, Trappist beer, and champagne. They also developed the herbal elixirs Benedictine and Chartreuse, classified as venerable liqueurs today. (The Chartreuse formula remains a monastic trade secret, known only to the three monks making it at any one time.)
Despite monastery ascetics, a considerable number of medieval monks were fat (remember Friar Tuck?), and even obese. Monks at monasteries in the London area bulked up on daily diets of 6000 calories (down to 4000 on fasting days), largely from saturated fat-laden meat, eggs, and cheese.
Today, monasteries have turned food appreciation into lucrative incomes. Mail-order food products, which replaced agrarian economies, go beyond fudge, fruitcake, ale, and liqueurs. You can start your day by throwing off a cozy blanket woven from abbey-shorn sheep's wool, brewing up a pot of Trappist-grown Venezuelan coffee, accompanied by monk-crafted bagel spreads, or perhaps whole grain pancakes and heavenly honey (from Orthodox monks and nuns), and maple syrup tapped by St. Gregory's Friary. Anoint a luncheon salad with herbed oils and balsamic vinegar. Devil up your eggs with a Monastic Mustard from the Benedictine Sisters. Like your tacos hotter 'n' hell? Douse them with habanero hot sauce, crafted by angelic Anglicans. And for dessert, how about a Trappist Whiskey Cake, chocolate truffles, or a wedge of monastery cheese washed down with Trappist ale, served in an authentic silver-rimmed Chimay glass? Miraculously, all of this is just an Internet or mail order away.
What will the brothers (and sisters) think of next? In the words of the monks at St. Gregory's: Bon Appetit and Amen!
[This outtake was originally written for Great Bar Food at Home, but was cut out due to limited page count. To read more, buy Great Bar Food at Home, by Kate Heyhoe]
- Great Bar Food at Home
- by Kate Heyhoe
- John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- $17.95, 128 pages
- ISBN-10: # 0471781835
- ISBN-13: 978-0471781837
- Information provided by the publisher.
- Visit the Cookbook Profile Archive
on the Global Gourmet website
This page created September 2007
Great Bar Food
Buy the Book
Book Reviews
Kate Heyhoe
Gougère, page 22
GBF Gift
and Party Ideas
Ideal travel
and gift size:
- Carry it on-board, or mail—about 8-inches square
Craft a gift basket:
- Add martini glasses and olives, or wine and cheese
Give to your hosts:
- With or without wine, for dinners, parties & holidays
For a first date
at home:
- Mix the drinks and dine in
Cheers to Newlyweds:
- Ease into married life, enjoy bar food in your new home
Dress for cocktails:
- Throw a bash with easy bites
Oscar Parties:
- Eat like movie stars with caviar, crab cakes, and more
Cocktail Onion'd
Deviled Eggs, page 30
The Book
Why I Wrote This Book
About the Book
Table of Contents
Index
Sample Recipes
Features
- Nearly 50 recipes
- 28 luscious photos
- Hardcover, full color
- Pairing guide: bar food & drink
- Legendary tales & great bar lore
Outtakes
(Web Only)
Glamorous Garnishes
for Bar Food at Home
"Spiritual" Cooking
From Friars to Fruitcakes
Tasty Bytes
- "A little bad taste is like a nice dash of paprika."
—Dorothy Parker - Bemelmen's Bar has been called "a rumpus room for sophisticated adults."
- Few bites appeal as much as melted cheese spooned into small tortillas...
- Gastropubs Invade U.S.!
- A bacaro swells at midday and early evening...
- Food was never the attraction at Studio 54, for the cocaine-sniffing clientele...
- Café Society didn't end with Repeal. It simply staggered into the daylight...
- Lusty Spanish smoked paprika will change your life...
Salmon Sliders, page 40